Easy liner

Midwest Groundcovers and Van Belle Nursery are fairly new partners. Mike Krueger, nursery manager, says Midwest started with Van Belle’s Bloomin’ Easy program two or three seasons ago.

“We feel the branded programs bring a lot of value to the marketplace,” he says. “Having a fresh brand like Bloomin’ Easy made sense.”

Midwest brings Bloomin’ Easy plants in as liners, and has become a licensed propagator of certain Bloomin’ Easy varieties, which helps them keep costs down.

Nightglow® Diervilla is one of Krueger’s favorites and one of the most popular plants in the line.

“Every time I give nursery tours, that seems to be a big showstopper for a lot of our customers that come out for visits,” he says.

Physocarpus Panther™ is another popular shrub, he says. Customers like how dark of a ninebark Panther™ is and that it stays pretty compact. Flare™ Hydrangea paniculata and Bella Bellissima® and Bella Soul® Potentilla are other varieties Midwest grows with success.

Most of Midwest Groundcovers’ customers are landscape contractors in the Chicago area, and getting them to switch to something new or different can be challenging. But that’s one of the reasons Krueger says working with brands like Bloomin’ Easy pays off – they can push the market to offer new plant genetics.

Typically, Midwest’s production cycle goes from a 1-gallon to a 3-gallon. But when potting up with Van Belle Nursery’s RocketLiners, Midwest is usually able to go straight to a 3-gallon container.

“Being able to cut out that 1 gallon stage for us is pretty huge,” Krueger says. “The more steps you can either cut out or simplify is the only way we’re going to be able to affect the bottom line.”

Van Belle also has been using its FloGo pot-less shipping system for a few years now. Krueger remembers the first time he saw a Van Belle truck with the FloGo system arrive and open up for delivery. He was definitely bewildered at the lack of plastic. “They’re just sitting there in boxes,” he says. But the system grew on him.

The liners go directly from a recyclable cardboard box to a container at the nursery. It’s a shock for growers used to wrestling plants out of pots or trays. Shipping pot-less allows Van Belle to fit more plants on a truck, allowing growers to reduce their cost per plant on freight. But Krueger’s favorite aspect of the FloGo system is not having to find a place to recycle all that plastic.

“Not having the plastic insert or a plastic tray is actually huge, especially with sustainability on everyone’s radar,” he says. “Plastic is going to be one of the biggest things our industry is going to have to deal with as the future comes.”

For more: midwestgroundcovers.com